
Gen. Muhammadu Buhari
A Federal High Court in Abuja again on Tuesday ordered the service of court papers on the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), in another suit filed to disqualify him from contesting in the February 14 election.
Justice Adeniyi Ademola had on Monday heard a similar case and ordered that Buhari and the Independent National Electoral Commission be served through substituted means by publication in newspapers.
On Tuesday, the judge again granted an ex-parte application seeking the same prayer in a separate suit seeking to disqualify Buhari from participating in the poll over his failure to attach his certificate of academic qualification to his form submitted to INEC.
INEC is also a defendant in the fresh suit numbered FHC/ABJ/CS/01/2015 and filed by Chukwunweike Okafor. It is to come up for hearing on February 9.
The plaintiff in the case which came up for hearing on Monday was Max Ozoaka Okafor.
The plaintiffs are, in their different suits, contending that the INEC FORM CF 001 submitted to INEC by the APC candidate was incomplete and therefore urged the court to declare the form as incompetent.
They further stated that the failure of Buhari to accompany the INEC form with evidence of his educational qualifications and evidence of his birth certificate or affidavit of declaration of age had altogether rendered the form inchoate.
Ozoaka, in a supporting affidavit to the originating summons, stated that the INEC form submitted by Buhari did not meet the requirements of sections 31(1)(2) & (3), and 31(8) of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended).
He also faulted some pieces of information contained in other documents attached to the form, including Buhari’s voter card which described the presidential candidate as a public servant.
The plaintiff urged the court to declare that the voter card, the photocopy of which was attached to INEC Form CF 001, was false on the grounds that Buhari was not a public servant as of when the voter card was issued.